


Remember

by Kileykao



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 10:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18602674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kileykao/pseuds/Kileykao
Summary: Astrid doesn’t remember. Bren isn’t there.Wulf pushes. Astrid pushes back. She knows that there are gaps. She does. There are places that are blank. Soft Words spoken, but there is no one saying them. Gifts received that have no giver. Wulf tells her time and time again that it was Bren. She doesn’t remember.





	Remember

**Author's Note:**

> Smoke! Much Love on your Birth!

Wulf pushes. He tries. He goes to Bren in a padded cell time and time again. Talking to an empty shell of nothing. There’s nothing left.   
Astrid doesn’t remember. Bren isn’t there.  
Wulf pushes. Astrid pushes back. She knows that there are gaps. She does. There are places that are blank. Soft Words spoken, but there is no one saying them. Gifts received that have no giver. Wulf tells her time and time again that it was Bren. She doesn’t remember.   
He takes her once. Just once. To see the empty man who was once the man she had knew. She doesn’t remember.   
Bren still doesn’t respond.

Bren is still just empty.   
Wulf tells her stories when the two of them are not blood soaked for the Empire. They speak in their language about the man they once knew. She doesn’t remember Bren. She doesn’t remember growing up together, and forging their life together. She doesn’t remember a man that she aches to have lost. 

She gets a letter about a man named Caleb Widogast. She doesn’t know who that is either.

Wulf tells her to go. She doesn’t want to. But she does. She finds a man, and a goblin, and a tiefling. 

She doesn’t know the man.  
She knows of the man.   
He isn’t that man. 

He’s nervous, and introduces himself as Caleb Widogast. There is a mantra in her head that says his name is Bren. Wulf’s voice in the back of her head introducing her to a broken man.  
She wishes Wulf was here.

 

They talk. He doesn’t talk.   
The Goblin and the Tiefling talk. They ask her questions.   
She wants to know what happened. 

Bren, no Caleb, asks if she knows who he is.   
She tell him “no, but Wulf tells me we were lovers once.”  
His voice is thick when he answers, heavy with the Zemnian accent that have slowly started to fade from her and Wulf’s voices, “Ja, we were, the three of us, we were...”

He doesn’t finish.

Astrid doesn’t think that it’s that he cannot remember like her. But like Wulf, who sometimes will pull Astrid close and whisper into her hair about their relationship. A mantra so he doesn’t forget. His eyes wet.   
It painful for him to think about. 

“I cannot remember Bren” she says instead  
“I cannot forget” he responds

*

Wulf doesn’t let Astrid know he follows her. He needs to see. When the letter comes he has his suspicions. So He follows her to Zadash. 

He watches them. A Goblin, a Tiefling and Bren. They talk to Astrid. She doesn’t know who Bren is. And Bren doesn’t look the same. He isn’t hollow anymore. He’s something. 

He’s not nothing. 

He gets nervous when the meeting takes longer than it should have. He walks up to them and takes the seat next to Astrid. She doesn’t seem surprised by his appearance. 

Maybe he isn’t as sneaky as he thinks he is. 

Bren looks at him. His eyes aren’t empty anymore. They crystal blue and filled with emotion. 

“Wulf,” he says, voice quiet and full of emotion.   
He pulls him into a hug, hard whispers into Bren’s ear in their native tongue “I was worried Bren,”

The red haired man pulls away slightly, placing on hand on each cheek, “It is Caleb Widogast now, I have not been Bren in a long time,” 

Astrid doesn’t know this man, she knows of this man, she misses this man, but cannot remember why.   
Wulf misses Bren like a he’s missing a piece of himself. He tries desperately to get Astrid to remember, but cannot.   
And Bren is no longer Bren any more. He is a new man forged from fire. But he cannot forget Bren’s memories, no matter how hard he tries. 

The three of them are a mess, and still holding on. 

(There trying)


End file.
